Last edited on February 03, 2024. View history
Tamarind
Tamarind
How to sow tamarind: Transplant grafted sapling or direct seed
Sun requirement for tamarind: Plant in Full Sun
Tamarind is a large, slow-growing tree in the Fabaceae (Legume) family that is native to tropical Africa. The tree produces hanging pod-like fruit that contains an edible, sour and sweet pulp. Pods are 12-15cm long and covered in a hard brown shell. Each pod contains 6-12 seeds with juicy, acidic, paste-like flesh that can be eaten fresh or used in drinks, sauces, and chutney. Fruit is mature when the flesh is brown or reddish brown and becomes sweeter as it ripens. Trees have an irregular crown, dense, bright green, feathery foliage, and small red and yellow flowers. Tamarind is drought-resistant, and grows best where temperatures are between 20-35° C. Trees need dry weather when the fruit is developing. Grafted trees will produce fruit in 3-4 years, or 7-10 years if started from seed. Trees can live for over 200 years.
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Tamarind facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
2400cm × 2400cmRow Spacing
1800cmCrop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For tamarind, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 12°C and a shortest growing cycle of 70 days at its best temperature, about 1085 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your tamarind will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Photos
Photos
Tamarind crops
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 70 to 210 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Tamarindus indica L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Fabales Leguminosae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -1 °C, rest: -3 °C |
| Life form | tree |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, light |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about tamarind
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